


"For Winners Only"

by 89JadedPictures



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dancing, F/M, Minister for Magic Hermione Granger, cursed child non-compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-24 22:52:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17713172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/89JadedPictures/pseuds/89JadedPictures
Summary: Rose likes to make mix tapes and give them to Hermione. Draco catches her listening to one of them.





	"For Winners Only"

**Author's Note:**

  * For [I was BOTWP](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=I+was+BOTWP).



> Disclaimer: I do not own HP, or any of the music mentioned.
> 
> A/N: This is for I was BOTWP. She is one of the few critics I take seriously.

-January 2018-

She didn't know for how long he'd watched her before he stepped into her office.

If it had been just a moment, she wouldn't be too embarrassed. However, if he'd seen her whipping her hair back and forth to the loud pop music Rose had introduced her to while standing barefoot on her desk, she was sure she'd never live it down, and perhaps even want to die of embarrassment before doing so. By the look in his eyes, which she had a perfect view of seeing as she was standing nearly chest to chest with him after he stopped her from dancing out of her office, she couldn’t tell how much of the show he'd seen. 

She was tempted to ask, but instead she cleared her throat, cast a nonverbal spell to stop the music, and greeted as pleasantly as possible, “Mr. Malfoy. Good morning.”

“Good morning, Minister,” he extended, that smirk on his lips, the one that made her heart patter whenever it was directed at her. There was also amusement in his eyes, which proved that he most definitely saw something. But how much?

“In early, I see,” she said as she stepped back from him and straightened out her skirt, trying like hell not to think of the state her hair was now probably in. The more she drew attention to the fact that she’d been caught, the more awkward this situation would become.

Not that it wasn’t awkward enough that she, Hermione Granger, newly elected Minister for Magic, had been caught dancing around her office at six-thirty in the morning of her first day on the job. She hadn’t been able to help it, really. The past two years had been hell, and she’d earned, after a year’s highly stressful election, her position fairly. 

She had suspected some of the votes had come from people who “sympathized” with her, however, Shacklebolt had assured her that the pity given her due to Ron’s behavior had nothing to do with her being elected. She couldn’t help thinking that at least someone had voted for her for that reason, which peeved her more than she would admit.

Seeing new pictures almost weekly of Ron in foreign countries, and running around with women half his age, had been hard on Hermione, and, apparently, a large majority of the UK agreed. They’d only been officially divorced two years, and Ron had had numerous public relationships. Hermione had had zero. She’d focused on motherhood and her career, which landed her the most prestigious position in her country. 

Either way, though, she’d been elected a month ago, and had awoken before the sun that very day to get settled into her office, playing the record that Rose had given her labeled “For Winners Only”. 

For her birthday four months ago, Rose had gifted her one of her infamous “mixtapes”, which had been an oddly mature selection of music for an eleven-year-old, the first track being ‘September’ by Earth, Wind and Fire, the second “1979” by the Smashing Pumpkins. Then there was a Beatles song, a few Prince songs, and even some Otis Redding. Hermione had known that the young witch had spent some time with her grandparents (and perhaps even Harry) who most definitely had helped decide which songs would make it onto that particular record.

But this mix, “For Winners Only”, which Rose had put together as a congratulations gift after the election, had one of Hermione's guilty pleasure songs on it.

Rose listened to Lady Gaga, who Hermione had found gaudy, flashy and all around absurd, until she discovered her song ‘Applause’. For some reason, it threw her judgments for the aesthetically offensive American Muggle out the window, especially after she’d won the election. The track had had her instantly tapping her foot as it played from Rose's bedroom, and the same urge had taken her once more as she’d been organizing her office’s bookshelves the Muggle way. 

The tapping of her foot quickly moved up her body to her hips and shoulders, where she began bopping to the music. Then she began to do so a little harder, moving her hips and shoulders a tad more dramatically, her hair now bounding as she moved back to her desk to grab more books. 

She mindlessly looked over the titles, seeing as the song was taking her far off into a different place and time, to the day she was elected. Stepping up to the podium to the sounds of every witch and wizard in attendance, which had been quite a lot, applauding her on her win. That moment had been breathtaking, elating, and for the first time in years Hermione Granger had felt pure joy. 

She was loathe to admit that Ron’s divorcing her to “experience the world” had taken the witch to an all time emotional low, but hearing the crowd cheer for her had caused her to take quite a few large steps out of the pit she’d found herself in. 

She’d needed it, the applause, and she hadn’t even realized it until she felt the weight lift off of her heart and shoulders as she looked around at the people who trusted her to ensure the safety of their country. 

The memory had her kicking off her sensible pumps before she climbed onto the empty section of the desks surface, where she began to move, perhaps a bit provocatively, to the beat once more. Swinging her still wild hair around as she let her arms move above her head to clap in time with the music, she thought of the applause she'd received, and the joy hadn't left her since that day.

The man who stood before her now, after she'd jumped off the desk and started moving around the room, had been among them. He’d been standing near the front row with the other Ministry officials. She’d only looked at him for a few seconds as he smiled up at her approvingly, his long pale hands meeting quite vigorously for one who seemed so controlled all of the time. 

As he stood before her now, she could see he was holding back the urge to smile at her as he had that day, but managed to keep it together as he asked, “Should we here at the Ministry expect a lot of you… dancing on your desk?”

It took all the wizened witch could muster to keep her face from falling into one that screamed shock and embarrassment, and instead she placed an uneasy half smile before saying, “No… Um. No. That was uh…”

Her response was eloquent indeed.

“I understand,” Draco replied, taking over once he realized Hermione could, for the only time he’d ever witnessed, not find her words. “You deserve to celebrate. Though, I would watch my back some if I were you. There are a few here who would have found that behavior most unprofessional.”

Hermione’s face stiffened, and she gave him a hard stare before he added with a smile, “I’m not one of them. In fact, it was nice to see that you could still have fun.” Then his face sobered some before he had added, “I've been worried about you.”

She blinked at him rapidly. He… was worried… about her? 

The witch began to wonder if she'd fallen off her desk and hit her head, and was now in some bizarre dream. She and Draco had had a few conversations over the years, mostly only ever having small talk at Ministry functions, or nodding and greeting one another while passing on the cobbles, but never had she thought he would ever worry about her. Gods forbid, if it had anything to do with pity about Ron because she'd lock herself in her office for the rest of the year just to avoid him and his “worry”.

Though she could understand this feeling, because she'd felt pity and worry for him once the news of Astoria's passing had reached her ears. A Malfoy man left to raise a five-year-old boy without the mother, which she respected him immensely for, had brought the unfamiliar emotions for Draco up very quickly. 

The respect had only grown when she’d met the polite, humble and smiling Scorpius a couple years back. Some worry had lingered as the years went by where Draco never remarried, or even had, at least publicly, a romantic life after his wife.

But the pity and sympathy for their circumstances were very different…

“Why on earth would you be worried about me?” she asked, thinking the question rhetorical in its own right. Until he answered.

“You obviously work very hard, Hermione,” he began. “You always have. I'm just glad to see you smiling after everything.” She gave him a small half smile at this, and he added, “I didn't vote for you so that you could burn yourself out with this position. Be sure you take care of yourself, do things that make you smile, so you can take care of everything else, which I have no doubt you'll do great at.”

She knew he'd voted for her, what with his reaction the day the results were announced, but to hear it floored her. She had the inkling of suspicion that he was giving her advice that he'd earned from playing the game called life; after the war, after Astoria, after spending the past seven years raising Scorpius without his wife.

Hermione looked up at him and nodded, her smile now much bigger than the last, and said, “Of course. I'll keep that in mind. Thank you for the advice… Draco.”

“Anytime,” he said as he turned from her open door to leave, but paused and turned back to add, “And congratulations. I don't think I ever got to tell you that, or that I never doubted it would be you. You -,” he paused again, and let his eyes dart elsewhere for just a second before looking back to her to finish, “You are exactly what we need.”

And with that, he turned and walked away, leaving the Minister to stare after him. Questions and speculations darting around in her mind. She began contemplating the motives he would have to say anything like that to her. He'd obviously grown up, and hadn’t been cruel to her a day since the war, but for a moment she let herself wonder if he was being more than nice to her. If he was expressing a deeper interest than just as a “worried acquaintance”.

She stared after him until he took a corner out of sight, and fought the flush that hit her face at the idea of Draco Malfoy making a small pass at her. Before she could spend too much time thinking about his reasoning, she waved her wand hand to start the music up again, and she closed the door behind her before going back to her celebration dance. 

And why not? It had just been suggested to her, by someone she respected, to do something that made her smile.


End file.
